Manchurian Candidate

The movie went from failure to classic without passing through success.
George Axelrod, screenwriter

MGM is releasing a special edition of “The Manchurian Candidate”, the great 1962 noir thriller. The DVD should enable viewers to draw comparisons for themselves between John Frankenheimer's original film and Jonathan Demme's remake (See Review).

The transfer of the black-and-white film, photographed by Lionel Lindon, is great. It reuses commentary from the previous edition by Frankenheimer, screenwriter Geroge Axelrod, and star Frank Sinatra. The new edition also contains an interview with Angela Lansbury, who gave a most memorable, Oscar-nominated performance in this film, as the ultimate castrating and manipulative mother. William Friedkin, who was influenced by Frankenheimer, talks about the film's impact on young American filmmakers. (For a fuller review, see Film Comment).